Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Islamic State Car Bomb Campaign In Iraq’s Salahaddin

In July 2015 the Islamic State initiated its latest car bomb
campaign in Iraq. Salahaddin has been a major focus of this new offensive with
a huge amount of vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED) being
launched there in August. Like in Anbar, almost all of these bombs are being used
against the government’s forces, especially in the Baiji area, which the
Islamic State has effectively used as a diversionary target for the last
several months. Salahaddin however is not only a target of these VBIEDs but a
base for further attacks in Anbar and Baghdad provinces.

Salahaddin has seen the most car bombs in Iraq from June to
August 2015. There were 50 VBIEDs in the governorate in June with 43 of them
destroyed before reaching their target. That went down to 34 car bombs in July
as IS began its new campaign and started hitting new areas of the country. Then
in August they shot up to 188 VBIEDs with 173 destroyed. That was a total of
272 car bombs, more than Baghdad that saw 58 and Anbar that had 230 during that
same period. Since June 608 of these types of bombs have been used with 44% of
them taking place in Salahaddin.

Almost all of the car bombs in Salahaddin have been used in
the Baiji area, which is in the northern section of the province above Tikrit.
From June to August 6 VBIEDs were launched against the Samarra area in the
south, 10 in the Tikrit district in the center, 13 in other locations, and 236
in Baiji. The refinery in that last district was heavily contested after the
fall of Mosul and Tikrit in June 2014. IS originally wanted to capture the
facility to use in its oil industry, but that proved impossible as Baghdad
constantly sent reinforcements there. By early 2015 IS decided to use the
district as a diversion from its real focus, which was Anbar. From April to May
the militants seized the largest amount of the facility to date, and then the
day it seized Ramadi it began blowing up the refinery and retreated. After the
Anbar offensive began in July IS again launched heavy attacks into Baiji
seizing several sections of the town and surrounding villages, which again
succeeded in bringing in government reinforcements. IS has perfected small and
medium sized infantry attacks beginning usually with a mortar barrage, then a
truck or bulldozer bomb that is used to break through government defenses such
as berms, usually followed by suicide car bombs that attempt to infiltrate into
the security forces and Hashd’s positions, and then finished off with an
infantry assault. The intensity of this fighting was shown in two stretches
from August 15-17 and August 22-25 when 115 car bombs were used in Baiji with
another 28 on August 20.

The Islamic State appears to have four main areas it
produces VBIEDs in Salahaddin. One is obviously in Baiji. IS holds many of the
small towns in the rural areas outside of the refinery, which are likely used
to put together the bombs. The Hamrin Mountains in the east is another source
of these bombs, which are likely sent out to hit the Tikrit and Samarra areas.
A third is probably around Samarra where IS continues to carry out hit and run
attacks and bombings. Finally, the fourth area is in the south around Taji and
Tarmiya. These camps are used to send car bombs into neighboring Anbar and
Baghdad.

Iraq History Timeline

About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. I have written for the Jamestown Foundation, Tom Ricks’ Best Defense at Foreign Policy and the Daily Beast, and was responsible for a chapter in the book Volatile Landscape: Iraq And Its Insurgent Movements. My work has been published in Iraq via NRT, AK News, Al-Mada, Sotaliraq, All Iraq News, and Ur News all in Iraq. I was interviewed on BBC Radio 5, Radio Sputnik, CCTV and TRT World News TV, and have appeared in CNN, the Christian Science Monitor, The National, Columbia Journalism Review, Mother Jones, PBS’ Frontline, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for the Study of War, Radio Free Iraq, Rudaw, and others. I have also been cited in Iraq From war To A New Authoritarianism by Toby Dodge, Imagining the Nation Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq by Harith al-Qarawee, ISIS Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassahn, The Rise of the Islamic State by Patrick Cocburn, and others. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com